Imran Tahir likely to join Delhi franchise

With their spinners struggling in the ongoing Indian T20 League, Delhi are likely to bring in South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir to bolster their slow bowling department.

With Nathan Coulter-Nile ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to a hamstring problem, Delhi have the option of roping in a replacement. The Australian got injured while fielding in Delhi's game against Chennai, three balls into the match.

Tahir was not picked at the auction but had a superb T20 Cup in Bangladesh in which he was one of the top wicket-takers, with 12 scalps in the tournament, and gave away very less runs.

Tahir's experience of having played in T20 cricket in England and South Africa will also come handy. He has played 12 T20Is, taking 21 wickets while he has picked up 99 wickets in 91 T20 matches, taking 99 wickets with a decent economy rate of 6.42.

"Tahir is the likely choice as Delhi are desperately short in their spin department. There were talks of him joining the team in UAE but it has been delayed. Hopefully, it will be cleared in a day or two," a BCCI official involved with IPL activities said.

Currently Delhi have only two specialist spin bowlers in left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and leg-spinner Rahul Sharma.

While the Delhi franchise's skipper Pietersen had always put up brave front about his spin bowling department, the team is a bit short on experience. Left-arm spinner Nadeem has picked four wickets from five games with an economy rate of 7.98 runs per over.

The other spinner, Rahul Sharma, was hammered for 33 runs in three overs in the opening game and never got a look-in in the next four encounters.

Kolkata Knight Riders' victory celebrations post their triumphant Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign were marred by a near-stampede followed by a lathi-charge as more than 150,000 supported clambered over barricades and gates to get a glimpse of their heroes.